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PTR sold to Lion's Gate Trailers with help from Alexander Capital Group

Its hammer down for Burnaby-headquartered Lions GateTrailers Ltd.

, which recently established a formidablebeachhead in Eastern Canada with its acquisition of ProvincialTrailer Rentals (PTR) and its sister company, ContorTerminals, of Mississauga, Ontario.Lions Gate Trailers rents, repairs and sells semi-trailers outof locations in Coquitlam, Edmonton and Calgary. Buoyed bythe growth of its western Canadian operations, the companydecided to return to Ontario after leaving a decade ago.“We thought it was time to become a national company,”said Lions Gate president and CEO Carl Vanderspek.He added that the company, which has approximately 5,300trailers in its inventory, has been enjoying annual revenuegrowth of 30 per cent in recent years.The addition of an intermodal terminal depot is a first, butwill allow the company to learn more about the intermodalbusiness, which could provide future expansion opportunities,according to Vanderspek.“We didn’t intend to buy a container company, but it wasin the package.“We looked at it, and we thought it did add to the mix sowe purchased it. But the trailer rental company was our firsttarget.”PTR has facilities in Mississauga, Montreal, Hamilton andCambridge.The transaction closed last month, but it had been underconsideration since August.Vanderspek didn’t disclose financial terms of the acquisition,but confirmed it was a cash deal.Provincial Trailer Rentals and Contor Terminals will continueunder their current management, he said, and no jobswere lost as a result of the acquisition.Reprinted from Business in Vancouver December 19–25, 2006 NewsRichard LamTruck stop: trucks and trailers set for hauling goods sit in Lions Gate’s Lower Mainland yardLocal semi-trailer truck companyrolls back into Eastern CanadaBurnaby’s Lions Gate Trailers Ltd. acquires two Ontario companiesas part of its corporate game plan to become a national enterpriseLions Gate has already taken steps to boost Provincial Trailer’sinventory of approximately 3,700 units with an order for200 more. It hopes to raise that inventory to 5,000 units withinthe next 18 months, Vanderspek said.A cash shortage previously limited Provincial Trailers’ abilityto expand because it didn’t have the inventory it needed togrow, according to Vanderspek.He added that integration of accountingand customer support systems will resultin better service and help attract nationalcustomers.It also provides synergies for existingLions Gate Trailers’ clients who werealready clients of Provincial Trailer Rentalsin Ontario.“This acquisition allows Lions Gate andPTR to provide their customers a full rangeof services from Vancouver to Quebec City,”PTR president Gord Box told Today’s Trucking.Vanderspek said the shift in the globalsupply chain to containerization will boostLions Gate PTR’s supply of container chassistrailers, which, along with dry vans and reefer or refrigeratedunits, are now one of the top three trailer types in demand.“When we started in the business there were only two types[of trailers]. That was 43 years ago. Now I think we have about70 types of trailers,” said Vanderspek.Lions Gate is also a dealer for Great Dane Trailers.Continued demand is expected to fuel annual companygrowth of at least 10 per cent.“It looks very strong to us,” said Vanderspek. “We wouldn’tbe expanding at the rate we are if we were pessimistic.”Strong economic growth in Western Canada has drivendemand for trucking services.Trucking remains the dominant mode for transportinggoods between Canada and the U.S., according to StatisticsCanada.In 2004, about 53 per cent of exports to the U.S. and 78 percent of imports were moved by truck. In thesame year, there were 358 B.C. trucking companieswith annual revenues in excess of $1million, a 7.6 per cent increase over 2003.According to the B.C. Trucking Association,approximately 66 per cent of goodsexported from the province were destinedfor the U.S., with 46 per cent transportedby truck. Almost a third (31 per cent) of allcommodities exported from B.C. was shippedby truck. For-hire truck traffic is expected toincrease by an average annual growth rateof 2.3 per cent between 1984 and 2010. Thevalue of goods passing through the PacificHighway crossing rose from $7.5 billion in1990 to $19.1 billion in 2003. Higher porttraffic has also increased demand for trucking services.Duncan Wilson, a spokesman for the Vancouver PortAuthority, said excellent progress is being made by truckingcompanies signing new licence agreements needed to gainport access as required by the port’s new trucking policy. Asof December 13, 80 of 391 existing licence holders had reapplied.The deadline is January 15, 2007.